TechCheck

The DOJ's landmark tech monopoly trial against Alphabet kicked off today – with the government grilling its first witness Google Chief Economist Hal Varian about his advice to the company on antitrust issues. It’s reminiscent of the DOJ’s big tech trial of 20 years ago against Microsoft, when Bill Gates was the big personality. This time around though, all eyes are on Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai -- and though he's often been called "soft-spoken" and a "nice guy," his track record so far suggests he may be the wartime CEO that Alphabet needs.

Nvidia’s stock rise this year has been nothing short of meteoric. The chipmaker is at the heart of the AI boom as the supplier of chips that are required to build and run the likes of ChatGPT and other generative AI technologies. On this week of TechCheck Weekly, Deirdre Bosa digs into how Nvidia dominates this technological sea change and who is trying to challenge the chipmaker’s rule.

A new report today forecasts a 5% increase in U.S. ad revenue this year, but says the TV ad sector is experiencing an "existential crisis" amid an ongoing showdown between Charter and Disney that's caused sports programming blackouts for millions just as the NFL season kicks off. Plus, a top Apple analyst breaks down why shares are down today, citing two big decisions against the company - the EU naming Apple, among others, a gatekeeper under its Digital Markets Act, and Chinese officials told they can't use iPhones for work or bring them into the office.

Instacart's new valuation of up to $9.3 billion is a massive down round from the $39 billion of a few years ago. Bill Gurley, a VC and early Uber investor, says that’s a healthy reset: "I've lived through 3 different bubbles and bursts in this industry and unfortunately it's highly cyclical. It tends to go up slowly and crash immediately." He also talked startups in the IPO pipeline, whether there’s an AI bubble, and more.

We all lived through the SPAC boom of 2021 – when the blank check mergers accounted for 61% of all U.S. public listings that year... and the subsequent bust, with at least a dozen going bankrupt since then and more than a hundred now running low on cash. But even though many stopped paying attention to them, SPACs continued to live on. Now, two years later, there are signs of a resurgence, and some investors are seeing new opportunities. This week on Tech Check, zombie SPACs – back from the dead.